Tracking device for music sheets and the like



J ly 1 1924. v 1,499,993

S. W. WARNER TRACKING DEVICE FOR MUSIC SHEETS AND THE LIKE OriginalFiled Oct. 9. 1920 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 9 a 6H awe-1 9 awuem toz gdbwg July1, 1924. 1,499,893

s. w. WARNER RA NG DEVICE FOR MUSIC SHEETS AND THE LIKE Original FiledOct. 9. 1920 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 I 9/ I I I i Q 1 ;I I l II l I i PatentedJuly 1, 1924.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

STERLING XV. WARNER, OF WESTFIELD, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR TO THE .AEOLIANCOMPANY, A CORPORATION OF CONNECTICUT.

TRACKING DEVICE FOR MUSIC SHEETS AND THEIJKE.

Application filed Octoberl), 1920, Serial No. 415,847. Renewed May 6,1924.

To all 1071 mit may concern:

Be it known that I, STERLING W, IVARNER, a citizen of the United States,residing at lVestfield, in the county of Union, New Jersey, haveinvented certain new and. useful Improvements in Tracking Devices forMusic-Sheets and the like, of which the following is a specification.

My present invention relates to improvements in tracking devices formusicsheets and the like.

In the usual tracking device, the wandering of the sheet out of trackvaries the condition of a control port or ports to open or close samemore or less in order to induce a corrective device tooperate tocorrectthe wandering of the sheet.

The main defect of such devices is that the sheet has to wander too farout of track before the control port is sufficiently affected to inducethe corrective device to operate. This defect is largely due to theinertia of the corrective device requiring a relatively large amount ofpower to set said device intooperation. This permits the sheet to wandertoo far out of track before the correction is made.

My present invention overcomes this de feet by the ways and means shown,described and claimed in the annexed drawings and specifications.

In the drawings, which show only one of the preferred embodiments myinvention is adapted to take in connect-ion with a playerpiano,Fig 1 isa front elevation of my improved tracking device and of the immediatelyrelated parts of the player-piano; Fig. 2 is a vertical sectionalenlarged view through the motor pneumatics that correct the wandering ofthe sheet; Fig. 3 is a view on the line 3-8 in Fig. 2 looking in thedirection of the arrows; Fig. a is a vertical sectional enlarged viewthrough a control device located between the sheetcontro lled port orports and the aforesaid motor pneumatics; and Fig. is a view on the line5-5 in Fig. 4 looking in the direction of the arrows.

Describing now the devicesof the drawings,1 is the music-roll box of aplayerpiano or the like; 2 is the tracker-bar; 3 is a music-roll andsheet; 4 and 5 are the spindles for supporting the music-roll, thelatter being the live or driving spindle secured to the end of the shaft6; 7 is the take-up spool, provided with the gear-wheel 8 and supportedon the trunnions 9-9.

10 is the suction-motor for driving the sheet; whose crank shaft 11supports a sprocket 12 which through a chain 13 drives I anothersprocket 1& on a shaft 15 on whose the tracker-bar to play it, or viceversa permits said pinion 16 to be drawn to the right in Fig. 1 out ofmesh.

To effect rewinding of the sheet back onto the music-roll, 17 is asprocket loose on the shaft 15, connected by a chain 18 with a fixedsprocket 19 on the music-roll driving spindle 6. The loose sprocket 17 ihas a clutch-pin 20 adapted to be engaged by the coacting pin 21 of aclutch sleeve 22 slidably fixed between limits on the shaft 15 by aspline 23. 24: is a lever pivotally supported at 25 whose upper-end islocated in the an nular groove in the clutch sleeve 22. When this leveris swung from its position in Fig.

1 toward the right, it carries the shaft 15 and pinion 16 out ofengagement with the take-up spool and at the same time carries the pin21 of the clutch sleeve 22 into rotary driving engagement with the pin20 on the sprocket 17, whereby the motor 10 then drives the music-rollspindle 6 and rewinds the sheet onto the music-roll.

The music-roll is spring-pressed to the right. by a compression-spring26 acting against the endwise movable head 4: of the left-handsupporting-spindle for the musicroll,

The music-roll is adjustable to the left against the action of saidspring 26 by the cam 27 acting against the end of the musicroll drivingspindle 6 which for this purpose is movable endwise in its bearings.Said cam 27 is part of an elbow-lever 28 pivotally supported at 29.

The upper end of this elbow-lever 28 is operatively connected to thepneumatic means shown at the left in Fig. 1 by a member consisting oftwo rods 3031 adjustably connected by a turn-buckle 32 engaging theoppositely screw-threaded ends of said rods.

33-3l are control-ports consisting of ducts in the tracker-bar at theedges of the music-sheet. These control-ports 33 and 34 are connected bytubes 35respectively'with interconnected balanced pneumatics 36 and 37mounted on the stationary block 38 supported by the bracket v39 upon themusiclarge, opposed motor pneumatics 48-49. 20

' interconnected by a link 50, andthis in turn is pivotally connectedwith the previously 7 described cam-operating rod 30.'

The movable boards of these pneumatics are These motor pneumatics 48-49are mounted on a block 51 supported by brackets from the-v side of themusic-roll box. Both of said pneumatics are normally on suction appliedthrough the tube 52 by way of the bleeds 53-53 in a passage in saidblock 51.

Theother pneumatics 36-37 have pur-' posely a small capacity (ascompared with "the motor pneumatics 48-49) so that they are sensitivelybalancedand so that their balance is-u'pset'by even a slightdiiferential change in the pneumatic condition of the tracker controlports.

The operation is as follows r-Fig. 1

shows the sheetin accurate tracking relationship to the tracker-bar andall the other parts positioned accordingly. "Thefpne matics' 36 and 37 Iare equally balanced against each other because the same amount ofsuction is being applied'to them through "the tube 41 and'the bleeds 42;also because said suction is being weakened tothe same extend by theatmospheric air sucked into the pneumatics through the equally opencontrol parts 33-34. Therefore, the pneumatics assume the position shownin F ig.

1 with their valves 43-44 equally spaced from their respective ports45-46. In other words, the equally open pneumatic condition'of thecontrol ports 33-34 is duplicated at the secondpair of control ports45-46. This causes the motor pneumatics:

"48- 49 also to be equally balanced against each other so that throughthe rod 30, the

cam 27 ispositioned as shown holding the music-r011 against the pressure'of-the spring '26 in the centra1 position shown corresponding tothe;accurate tracking position of the Should now the sheet begin to wander,for instance, to the left, it will open port 34 more than port 33;consequently, more atmospheric a1r' will'be entering pneumatic 37 than36, and their sensitive balance will 7 into the other motorpneumatic 49.Therefore, the much greater exhaust in 49 will caus this neumatic tooverpower the pneumatic '48, and will push the rod 30 to'the right androck the cam 27 upwardly, where by a lower part of the cam then bearsagainst the spindle 6 so thatthespring 26 now pushes the music-roll andmusic-sheet to the right until the sheet is again sym metrically locatedover the first control ports 33-34, by which time all of the parts arerestored to their original positions'in Fig. 1 because now the pneumaticcondition of both ports 33-34 is equalized, which in turn automaticallyequalizes the pneumatic condition of the, second pair of control ports45-46, which in turn equalize the motor pneumatics 48-49 I Similarly anyright hand wandering of the sheet is instantly corrected by a .reverseoperation of theparts to thatjust described.

The device is unusually elfective due to the tracker ports 33-34beingused to control the motor pneumatics .49-48 not'directly but through anintermediate balanced controlmeans which is sensitive to anydifferencein' the pneumatic conditionof the tracker-ports.

When the tracker ports are usedi directly to control the:motor'pneumatics, these latter are necessarily so'large andhave so muchinertia to overcome to shift the musicroll, that the sheet'mustwanderrelatively far out of track'before there is enough difference" createdin the pneumaticcondition of the respective tracker ports to induce thelarge motor pneiunatics to operate to restore the sheet into track.

The interposition of the small, sensitively balanced pneumatics 37-36doing no iwork except to shift the valves 43-44 overcomes this defect,so that they respond to the slightest differential changein thepneumatic condition of. the tracker. ports; and instantly reproduceexaggerated differential changesin th pneumatic condition of the othercontrol-ports 43-44. This so greatly magnifies the diifere'ntial suctionin the respective motor"pneumatic-s that in spite of their large sizeand'inertia, they readily operate without the sheet wandering fartherout of't'rack.

The device has been shown and described as operating on suction but itwould be an obvious equivalent to introduce the obvious changeswell-known to those skilled in this art to make the device operate onpressure. Also, obviously, other changes can be made in the above atpresent preferred embodiment of my invention without departing from theessence thereof and which will still come within the spirit of saidinvention and the annexed claims.

WVhat I claim is:

1. The combination in a tracking device of two control-ports appurtenantto the tracker-bar arranged respectively to have their pneumaticconditions oppositely varied by wandering of the sheet; interconnectedbalanced pneumatics both operative on suction and several connected withthe two control-ports; additional control-port and valve means operatedby said balanced pneumatics; and pneumatic motor means adapted to beconnected direct to the atmosphere through said additional controlportmeans to be governed thereby and operatively arranged to correct thewandering of the sheet.

2. The combination in a tracking device of two control-ports appurtenantto the tracker-bar arranged respectively to have their pneumaticconditions oppositely varied by wandering of the sheet; interconnectedbalanced pneiunatics, always subjected to suction and severallyconnected with the two control-ports; two additional controlports andvalves for same operated by said balanced pneumatics; and interconnectedmotor-pneumatics, both operative on suction and severally connected withthe two additional control-ports to be governed there-- by, said motorpneumatics being operatively arranged to correct the wandering of thesheet.

3. The combination in a tracking device of two control-ports appurtenantto the tracker-bar arranged respectively to have their pneumaticconditions oppositely varied by wandering of the sheet; balancedpneumatic means maintained under suction and operatively connected withsaid controlports and arranged to have its balance upset by adifferential change in the pneumatic condition of said ports; and motormeans governed by said balanced pneumatic means and operatively arrangedto correct the wandering of the sheet.

4. The combination in a tracking device of a control-port appurtenant tothe trackerbar arranged to have its pneumatic condition varied by thewandering of the sheet; balanced pneumatic means subjected to continuoussuction and operatively connected with said control-port and arranged tohave its balance upset by a variation in the pneumatic condition of saidport; and motor means governed by said balanced pneumatic means andoperatively arranged to correct the wandering of the sheet.

In testimony whereof, I have signed my name to this specification thissixth day of October 1920.

STERLING W. WARNER.

